APG Warrant Officer ‘Brown Bag’ leadership session

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. —The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command in concert with the Maryland National Guard Warrant Officer Candidate School 70th Regiment Regional Training Institute, hosted a Warrant Officer Leader Professional Development session at APG North and APG South (Edgewood), Sept. 22. The event was open to all APG warrant officers and was led by Chief Warrant Officer 5 Yolondria Dixon-Carter, Senior Warrant Officer Adviser to the Chief of Staff of the Army.

In her leadership role, Dixon-Carter represents over 13,000 warrant officers in the active component, about 8,700 in the National Guard, and about 3,500 reservists in the total Army. Dixon-Carter also serves as the Assistant Executive Officer for the CSA, Gen. James McConville, where she is the principal administrative adviser to McConville and ensures he is properly prepared to make informed decisions.

“As the senior warrant officer adviser, I am responsible for the warrant officer cohort,” Dixon-Carter explained. “Training, education, health and welfare, all of the initiatives, and talent management to name a few. And it’s more so monitoring and helping continue to assess, develop, employ and retain the Army’s talent.”

To start off this warrant officer “brown bag” leadership session, Dixon-Carter was given a personal tour of APG Edgewood’s 70th Regiment Regional Training Institute WOCS by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Teri Thomas, Primary Training Advising and Counseling Officer of Maryland National Guard WOCS, and Chief Warrant Officer 5 Daniel Chapman, Command Chief Warrant Officer of Maryland, senior warrant officer advisor for the state of Maryland.

Here, Dixon-Carter was shown where prospective warrant officers in the region train, exercise, are given classroom instructions, and are developed into future Army warrant officers. The tour was also an opportunity for both Dixon-Carter and other warrant officers from APG to interact with one another in an informal setting, as questions were asked by APG warrant officers of Dixon-Carter and vice-versa.

“Today it was more so what they did for me rather than what I provided them, which is just having a candid conversation that is honest, open and transparent,” said Dixon-Carter. “Pretty much what I did today was I came down and spoke to the Soldiers about what the Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. McConville’s and the Army’s priorities are: People first, readiness, and modernization; and how we as a cohort of warrant officers, across all three components (active, national guard and reserve), fit in as Army leaders; highly-trained, disciplined, physically-fit and mentally tough, ready to fight and win our nation’s battles!”

The latter part of the “Brown Bag” session was more formal and held at APG North’s Mallette Training Facility where Dixon-Carter discussed and outlined CSA priorities, projected initiatives of the warrant officer cohort, and respective professional military education proceedings. The second part of the event also featured a formal question and answer session, in which less-senior warrant officers were able to give their direct input and inquiries to the senior warrant officer leaders in attendance.

“Often times we don’t have warrant officer sessions like this at the senior level from Headquarters Department of the Army,” Dixon-Carter explained. “So, I think having representation from the senior level of the Department of the Army is what’s so special. It was important to come out here today to let APG know that you are not forgotten and to let the warrant officers that serve here each and every day that are doing amazing jobs know that the Headquarters Department of the Army is thinking about them.”

Dixon-Carter addressed the session about the importance of Army values and highlighted what she personally believes the future has in store for warrant officers and leadership development in the Army.

“As an Army leader, I would like for us to continue to develop our leaders to be technically proficient and efficient in what they do,” she said. “But I would also like for us to develop our leaders to have some empathy and compassion, to be committed to the profession. People first. Meaning taking care of our Soldiers, civilians, our family members, our retirees, veterans and making sure that our Soldiers are ready to fight and win. Readiness and modernization. We can’t be ready and we can’t modernize if we don’t have the people to do it. That’s why ‘People first’ is so important to our Army.”

The event concluded with CECOM presenting Dixon-Carter with an award of appreciation. Dixon-Carter then offered her biggest takeaways and what she personally hopes attendees gathered from the event.

“Warrant officers are first and foremost leaders,” Dixon-Carter stated. “We’re leaders first, we’re technical advisors, we’re more than just combat multipliers, and that we are a part of the team. It’s not just our officers, enlisted, NCO’s or even our civilians, but warrant officers that make-up the cohesive team. I would like for people to take away that we’re leaders and to understand the value of warrant officers and what we can do to better an organization as well as ourselves.”